Silver dragons are known for taking a protective role around humanity. Actually dealing<\/em> with the ice trolls directly would have been better, but\u00a0that is probably a bit too much to expect. It is not it’s job, and I think the species in general\u00a0takes the same philosophy as parents when looking\u00a0after children: it is important to learn to fight your own battles. A little nudging here and there is fine, but intervening directly makes you soft and dependent. I admit I have mixed feelings about this approach\u00a0to pedotrophy, though, probably because mom’s definition of “a little nudging” differed significantly from the norm: she\u00a0<\/span>left the hen house open to the fox and\u00a0the extent of her guidance was\u00a0“figure it out”.<\/span><\/p>\n Sandru stopped the caravan so that we could\u00a0work out a plan and the first thing we did was consult with Ulf. “Ice trolls are smaller and weaker than\u00a0regular trolls, but they are adapted to the cold. And, they’re smarter<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Of course that is a relative term. It’s not difficult to be smarter than a troll, but he didn’t mean for it to be a backhanded compliment: ice trolls really are cunning, or at least cunning enough, and have been known to create skillful ambushes. We could\u00a0very easily have stumbled into one if the dragon hadn’t warned us. We needed to know what we were walking into.<\/p>\n I asked Nihali to scout ahead and see what she could learn. This earned me a number of stares. Every time I send her out or involve her in our activities I get questioned about her safety and my apparent disregard for it. I never know what to say to this.<\/p>\n Etayne treats Ling like he is made of glass, and I get it. Much of that is simply the reality of being a witch, but on top of that she has her reasons—very personal reasons—and I don’t question that. But it seems everyone has the same expectation of me, and that is just\u00a0not how it is. I am sorry to disappoint you. My relationship with Nihali is\u00a0no less important to me, but what I need from her is not the same as what Etayne needs from Ling.<\/p>\n Whatever their opinion, no one argued with the results. Nihali returned in short order with the rough location of the ice trolls’\u00a0camp, and we\u00a0dealt with them.<\/p>\n Were they as smart as Ulf suggested? More or less.\u00a0They attempted\u00a0a respectable, albeit unoriginal, ruse that certainly caught our attention. Their only mistakes were assuming that we didn’t speak giant and wouldn’t recognize flanking maneuvers. In all fairness, I suspect few\u00a0would pass the first test,\u00a0and though the second was fairly obvious, if you were close enough to see it you were probably in trouble, anyway. Unless, of course, you were equipped and prepared as we were.<\/p>\n I would never say this to the others, but this skirmish nags at me. It was the first time we have gone out of our way to engage—to kill<\/em>—creatures native to this part of the world. Logically, I understand that they are a menace, dangerous\u00a0not just to us but to everyone who lives\u00a0here, and we saw enough human bones in their camp to reinforce that point, but\u00a0there’s this fine line between preemptive and aggressive. On which side did we just fall?<\/p>\n S<\/span>now has been falling steadily since late this morning. This would be lovely if it weren\u2019t for the winds. By mid-afternoon heavy white flakes were blowing all around us making it difficult to even see the road much less make any progress on it. Until they died back it wasn\u2019t possible to tell if the snow we were seeing was newly\u00a0falling\u00a0or merely being relocated from points north.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDied back\u201d is not the same as \u201cstopped entirely\u201d, however, and drifts have started to form on the windward side of the wagons that mark\u00a0the perimeter of our camp. We\u2019re going to have to dig out in the morning before we can get moving, and that\u2019s assuming we\u2019ll be able to move at all.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not exactly a stranger to snow or even blizzards, but such things are rare occurrences along the Lost Coast and I\u2019ve never been in snowstorms as intense and heavy as this. Growing up we\u2019d get at most an inch or two here and there, and maybe one big snowfall every few years. It was fun as a kid but it\u2019s less so when you can\u2019t just go inside to get out of it.\u00a0<\/span>The campfires created from the beads are helping to keep us dry, and our spells and enchanted items are keeping everyone warm, but these things do not keep the wind from whipping the canvas of our tents and the covered wagon, nor do they keep the snow out of our face and hair. The latter in particular makes guard duty particularly unpleasant. I predict a long, damp, and restless night.<\/span><\/p>\n T<\/span>he storm has been our faithful companion for three days now. Only a few inches of snow seems to be falling overall, but the winds have been a constant presence whipping up to blizzard and whiteout\u00a0conditions for hours at a time. Yesterday it took us much of the morning\u00a0to dig out and de-ice, and I doubt\u00a0we traveled more than a dozen miles afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, we didn\u2019t even try to move. The drifts were several feet high, nearly burying\u00a0the supply wagons, and the wind was gusting heavily. We’d get one wagon cleared, but in the time it took to do\u00a0another the first would be inundated with more snow and ice. It wasn\u2019t worth wasting our energy on a pointless activity. We have opted to wait it out until morning and see if the weather improves.<\/span><\/p>\n I suspect this\u00a0is just a taste<\/em> of what is in store for us in the coming months.<\/p>\n T<\/span>he storm finally broke over night. After days of gusting winds the air around us is eerily still and silent. We are surrounded by an ocean of snow, with drifts like waves stuck in time. We are supposed to turn off of the Path of Aganhei today and head for the village of Iqaliat\u00a0but I don’t know\u00a0how we will be able to see the road we are currently on, much less the next.<\/p>\n Skygni dropped in on us as we were de-icing the wagons in preparation for leaving camp. We asked in passing what he thought of the storm. “Get used to it,” was his reply. I thought that pretty much spoke for itself,\u00a0but he had more\u00a0to add. “It’s not common to see this so early in the year, but we’ll get\u00a0more of it as we head north.”<\/p>\n So that is something to look forward to.<\/p>\n W<\/span>e can finally see it clearly in the distance: the cliffs that form the edge of the arctic plateau. The High Ice. After two months of travel we are nearly there.<\/p>\n Ulf says we will make Iqaliat by noon. I asked him what we should expect.<\/p>\n “They are mostly a nomadic people. The main caravan route bypassed their village, and they are generally suspicious of outsiders.” He paused and then said, “They have their own ways.”<\/p>\n I interpreted that to mean we would not exactly become close friends during our stay. Ulf concurred. “Don’t expect them to be friendly until they get to know you, and you them.” He pulled out a strange talisman that looked like it was made of remorhaz scales. “This was a gift from their hearth mistress. It’s a token of friendship between me and their tribe.” Which meant he would do most of the talking.<\/p>\n Why make the stop at all, given the cold (ha!<\/em>) reception we are\u00a0likely to receive? Because they can\u00a0tell us what the conditions are like on the Ice. If we ask the same question in Unaimo\u2014which is the last village along the main caravan route on this side\u2014they will in all likelihood (and rather sensibly, I might add) just tell us not to go and leave it at that. Unfortunately, this is not one of our options. We need information, not a nanny, so Iqaliat it is.<\/p>\n There are basically two decent\u00a0people in this entire village: the hearthmistress, Sonavut, and the chief. Two gods-be-damned people in a village of over one hundred, and truth be told? I think the chief is just being polite. What is wrong with these people?<\/span><\/p>\nLamashan 11, 4712 (evening, Path of Aganhei\u00a0in the Hoarwell March)<\/h4>\n
Lamashan 13, 4712 (evening, Path of Aganhei\u00a0in the Hoarwell March)<\/span><\/h4>\n
Lamashan 14, 4712 (morning, Path of Aganhei in the Hoarwell March)<\/span><\/h4>\n
Lamashan 17, 4712 (morning, Hoarwell March)<\/h4>\n
(Afternoon, Iqaliat)<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/DSC_6039.jpg\")
<\/a>They are currently dealing with \u201cworse\u201d. In the past four months, a white dragon has raided their village three times, flying nearly 60 miles one way<\/i> to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n